The invention relates to ophthalmic surgical systems such as ophthalmic surgical microscopes, in which there is provided a measuring beam path, such as a wavefront measuring beam path.
Ophthalmic surgical systems which comprise an ophthalmic surgical microscope in which a wave front sensor is implemented within the beam path are commonly known. Such commonly known surgical systems provide an optical system having three optical paths. A first beam path is an observation beam path of visible light, which passes through an microscope optical system, which comprises an objective lens and oculars. In this way, by viewing into the oculars, a user can observe an object such as an eye, which has to undergo cataract surgery. The optical system further provides a second beam path, in which there is arranged a wavefront sensor for analyzing wavefronts emanating from the eye under surgery. The optical system further provides a third beam path for directing measuring light, generated by a light source, into the direction of the eye under surgery. The measuring light which returns from the eye is detected by the wavefront sensor. For separating the first beam path from the second beam path, the optical system further comprises a beam splitter. The optical system further comprises a polarizing beam splitter for separating the second beam path from the third beam path. The measuring light is transformed by a quarter-wave plate into circularly polarized light, which is reflected at the eye by keeping the circular polarization. Thereafter, the quarter-wave plate is again traversed by the measuring light, whereby the measuring light is converted into light with linear polarization. This direction of polarization is oriented orthogonally relative to the direction of polarization of the measuring light which is directed to the object. Thereby, the measuring light is guide by the polarizing beam splitter to the wave front detector with a high efficiency.
However, experience has shown that such systems yield insufficient results when detecting with the wavefront sensor.